Rail defect detection based on vibration acceleration signals

This paper proposes a rail defect detection method based on vibration acceleration signals. The vibration signals are generated from the vehicle-track coupling model by inputting different typical rail defect excitations. The empirical mode decomposition method is used to decompose the signal. Intrinsic mode functions that have a big cross-correlation coefficient with the original signal are selected, and then the instantaneous energy distributions of the selected intrinsic mode functions are calculated. By comparing the cross-correlation coefficient of the instantaneous energy distribution of different rail defect signals, the type and the damage level of rail defect can be identified.